#132- Friends, Food, Fun

On Thanksgiving Eve: With Vegetable & Swedish dips, Red Wine and Sweets, I had a nice evening at Marie’s home. It was a farewell party for Lauren (Marie’s friend).

Lauren speaks Japanese and she wanted to meet me before she leaves Los Angeles with her husband, so I got invited to a get together with them. She is so smart and fun. I am so glad that I met her before she is going away…I told her that we can write emails to each other in Japanese.

Marie has nice friends. Her other great Swedish friend, Liz is also smart and fun.

It was nice evening with talk + drink until mid night. Marie’s husband is so sweet, he took some pictures of us.

At the end, I asked Marie, “Where are you guys(she and her husband) going for Thanksgiving tomorrow?” She said, “We are going to have a Thanksgiving dinner at Quincy Jones’s house”. I was surprised and said, “What??? Are you guys still keeping in touch with him?” I was surprised that Marie’s husband’s sister is ex wife of Quincy Jones, but they are still having Thanksgiving together. So nice! Even though after divorce, they still get together and they are friends. (I don’t think I can see this kind of relationships in Japan…)

Keasha and Galia (Keasha’s mom) have wonderful family!!! I always have precious time with them.

Keasha: My best friend from Entrepreneur Media Inc.(Keasha and I used to work together for Entrepreneur magazine.) She is one of the smartest friends. She is so intelligent, kind, beautiful and fun. I am so glad that she is my friend.

Galia: Oh…she is a perfect woman. I always enjoy looking around her house. Everywhere, everything…soooooooo perfect! Yes, she is a perfectionist!!! She is a former school teacher, so she knows how to teach people. I learned so many things from her from how to cook to how to love men :) (She has a nice boyfriend/husband, Ernie.)

Ernie: Musician and Galia’s boyfriend/husband. He is so sweet. He is perfect for Galia and my favorite person.

John: Oh…another favorite person. Of course, Keasha’s husband. He is very kind, sweet and intelligent like Keasha. They are soooooooo perfect couple.

Johnathan: John and Keasha’s son. He is so cute. He has such a fun energy.

Kyle (Keasha’s brother/Galia’s son): He is so sweet that he helped Galia’s cooking and trash today. I want to show his work to Japanese men in Japan. American men are the best! By the way, he has a tutoring service business, if you need some education or computer learning help, let me know, he can help you!

Nonnie (Donna) and Papa(George): Johnathan’s grandparents. Nonnie has such a positive power and always fun to be around. Papa is quiet, but he has such a nice smile. Johnathan has three of grandparents, lucky him!

Berthann: John’s mom and grandmother of Johnathan. She is a very elegant woman.

Today, when I arrived at Galia’s house, Galia said to me, “You are the first one!”

Forget about fashionably late…I am Japanese. I always on time or too early…(I always leave my home early just in case…)

So, I asked Galia, “Can I help you?”

Yes, I got a job as an assistant of Galia! I unwrapped candles packages & lighted candles and helped to bake corn bread.

When we (18 people) were ready to eat, we stand in a circle hand in hand and pray (speech by Ernie). It was so wonderful to connect to each other before dinner. So spiritual and warm…I love this family!

Food was amazing! Two pounds of food I ate within a couple of hours (When I came home, I gain two pounds).

Second round: Oh…I was so stuffed, but I wanted to taste the best two items again/ Galia’s Candied Yams and Keasha’s Macaroni and Cheese. I guess, I can be a specialist of Candied Yams (see my old blog on Nov 12, 2010). P.S. Galia said, “There is no recipe for this candied yams, I just made it!” Oh…I wish I can see her brain during she was making candied yams… :)

Forth round: I was going to clean my plate and went to the kitchen, and Janelle(Nonnie’s younger sister) told me, “Yoko, you should try my lemon cake!”, then I got a slice of Lemon Cake.

There were more food, but I couldn’t eat or try anymore…maybe I can try next year! ha ha ha!

By the way, I brought the box of Marzipan (fruit shapes) as a gift, but nobody taste them before or never seen them before…and I gave them wrong information…I said to them, “Do you know traditional Swedish cake made by marzipan? It’s called Princess cake. It’s so good! I think marzipan is from Sweden!” Oh…I googled “Marzipan”, I found out that it originally from Middle East or China.

Anyway, dinner was, wow, everything was soooooooo gooooooood! I loved Keasha’s family Thanksgiving. It was perfect Thanksgiving. Friendship was great, Food was great and it was Fun!

When I see everyone get along each other, it makes me so happy.

End of the dinner, Galia and Keasha asked me, “Yoko, do you want to bring some food to your home?” I said, “I am ok, all food are in my stomach! ha ha ha!” Galia said, “Why don’t you bring Deviled Eggs home?” Oh…she is so sweet! She remembered that I loved her Deviled Eggs. I said to her, “Yes, please! By the way, I am still keeping the recipe of Deviled Eggs from you, but I have not cooked it yet.” Galia said, “Yoko, recipe is for using, not for keeping.”

Me: “Yes, ha ha ha! If I feel like to eat Deviled Eggs, I will come to see you!” (in my mind…!)

I am going to eat Deviled Eggs with Coffee and Blueberry Muffin after Thanksgiving (tomorrow morning).

I was thinking about “how can we resolve issues of terrorism
and war in this world, can we talk instead of fighting?”

And then I realized “I need to think about my issue
first” (since I moved into my apartment in Montrose one year ago)… yes, I have
an issue about my living situation… my upstairs neighbor (64 years old woman who is not working) has been waking me up
every night (around 11:15pm, 12:15am and 1:15am) with loud squeezing footsteps (it sounds not normal & regular footsteps) for one year… I had to
call police twice, and I fought with this neighbor twice…

I tried to go to bed at the same time when this neighbor
goes to bed… it doesn’t work (for me late night ene…

I really think that the founder of Kitson, Mr. Fraser
Kitson Ross is genius for marketing & business. He knows how to entertain
customer, and he knows what L.A. is and how to enjoy L.A.

About Kitson and Fraser, I have written a lot on Senken-Shimbun
and LA Celeb (their business closed, but it was a popular Japanese online
shopping site), and I also made a story about Kitson on Japanese TV program
(TBS TV).

At this time, I interviewed Fraser and wrote an article
about Kitson, him and his new store KITROSS on Senken-Shimbun (major Japanese
fashion business newspaper).

If you want to know about Kitson, Fraser and KITROSS,
read below.

My translation (into English) is not perfect, but my
Japanese article is more than perfect, ha ha…; )